Chapter Nine

Cornered

"Come on… come on… almost there… little closer… little… closer…" Alex strained as she reached for the remote that was diabolically placed in the middle of the floor just barely out of reach from the couch. She refused to let the guys win by seeing her leave the couch, though they had cheated by sneaking over while she had passed out from the pain killers that April had brought her and moved everything out of reach. So now she leaned out across the floor, arm stretched out as far as it would go, legs the only part of her still on the couch, her broken leg hurting from being moved from its spot on the armrest. From this position her fingertips just barely brushed the edge of the remote and she tried to coax it over to her, though it wasn't working out too well. At one point she accidentally pushed it a few centimeters away from her. "You stupid little…" she grumbled angrily at the inanimate object.

"Having troubles are we?"

The sudden voice made her jump and her legs almost slipped off the couch but she caught herself and got another wave of pain from her leg thanks to the sudden movement. Alex tried to look behind her and settled on lifting an arm up and oddly twisting around. Don was leaning on the back of the couch smiling like he knew everything.

"No!" Alex said roughly. "I'm doing just fine," she said and continued to reach for the remote.

"Would you like some help?" he offered.

"No," Alex refused, going back to reaching for the stupid remote. "I can… get it…" It was no longer a matter of wanting to watch TV but showing she could do things by herself even though she couldn't even walk. Finally she was able to flip the remote over to her putting it just within reach and she grabbed it. With bad aim she threw it behind her and it landed on the couch. That's when she realized it was easier to get in a position than to get out of one.

After thinking for a moment she got the idea that the couch cushion was still part of the couch and worked one of the cushions away from the couch with her good foot, trying to ignore her complaining leg. The cushion fell off the couch and flipped onto the floor. She put her good knee on the cushion and carefully lowered her bad leg onto the floor. Know standing on one knee she put her hands on the couch behind her and lifted herself up onto the actual couch. She crossed her arms in triumph. "There, told you I could get it," she told Don. "Staying on the couch isn't such a bad thing."

Donny walked away, not even going to bring up that technically that once a cushion leaves the couch it isn't part of the couch any more, and Alex could just barely catch him say "We'll see how long you last."

Ignoring him, Alex turned, being really careful where she put her splinted leg, and lifted her body onto the remaining couch cushion. Leaning down she picked the one on the floor up and put it back in its spot. Now with the remote at her side she put her foot back on the pillow on the armrest and leaned back, hard earned remote in hand.

Later that night Leo snuck over to the sleeping girl, lifted the remote from her limp hand and turned the TVs off. Before going to bed he looked at her and shook his head, she hadn't moved from the couch once since April had left yesterday, she even had an argument with Don about whether or not getting up to go to the bathroom counted as leaving the couch. The argument lasted for over an hour. She seemed to be as stubborn as Raph. Yeah, that's what they needed, a second Raph, great.

As he started off for his bedroom he stopped just realizing something. Back in the sewers after the robot attack, Alex had avoided the question they asked. Sure it was because of a broken leg, but she still hadn't answered and he'd forgotten about it. Could Raph be right? Was she really hiding something?

He shook his head. It didn't matter, if she was, she must have her reasons for hiding secrets. He should respect those reasons and not pry. But, there was that one comment that he remembered the kid saying when they had first met Alex.

"…there are only two ways for me to see this. One: I'm dreaming, but since nothing's trying to kill me here I'm probably awake…"

One couldn't help from wondering what her secrets were.

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Alex suddenly woke up. She had no idea why or how. The place around her was still really dark and she couldn't hear anything that would have disturbed her. She just… woke up.

It must have been two AM or something. She was still tired and was ready to go back to sleep when it felt like a searing hot needle was shoved through her leg all the way up her body until it reached the brain. She cringed in pain knowing she couldn't do anything to make it stop. Another needle did the same thing and joined the first one. A cold sweat started over her body as a third needle joined the others. She shot up at the fourth one and gripped the leg still propped up on the armrest as if that would help anything. The skin had started to itch something horrible, but the entire itch was underneath the parts of the splint, right where she couldn't reach with her fingers. Then the whole leg started to ache with discomfort that couldn't be helped.

She flung herself back down and pressed the pillow she had been laying on against her face trying to block the pain out though it was no use. The aching discomfort seemed to spread through her body with no way to stop it.

Without thinking she lifted the injured leg up and let it fall back down as if that would just cut the pain off. But all it did was send shattering agony up her spine.

"Ar-huh… that was stupid," she muttered in a pinched voice. "Damn leg, heal already."

She rolled on her side and tried to think distracting thoughts but her mind was coming up blank. She didn't have anything to think about. It wasn't her life to be full of thoughts away from pain and escape.

She could tell from there that the night wasn't going to be one of much sleep.

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Alex was still awake when the lights were turned on and activity started back up. If she had fallen asleep at some point in time after she had woke up in the middle of the night she couldn't remember it and felt like she hadn't gotten a solitary minute of sleep.

Leo had left in some morning training session off on his own in the city while the sun hadn't fully risen yet. When he came back there was still about two hours of quiet and then Mikey woke up. The guy was off in his room trying to sing along with a song that couldn't be heard. His voice was so off key… When Alex craned her neck to glimpse in his room she caught him in the middle of an air guitar with headphones on.

Mikey's singing got old after a few minutes and Alex had her eye on that video game controller set on top of one of the TVs. If only she had telekinesis…

"Enjoying your entertainment?" Donny asked with a small laugh, walking by the couch to head for the kitchen.

"Oh yes, the sound of a slowly dieing tone deaf walrus just lets time float by," Alex said rubbing an eye from exhaustion.

"Hey, only we're allowed to stay stuff like that," Don said, though he was smiling. "Even if he is a tone deaf… walrus."

Alex tried to hide her chuckling when her stomach growled. "Eg… I'm hungry," she proclaimed.

"If you could walk maybe you could get something."

"You make it sound like I broke my leg on purpose," Alex said acting emotionally hurt. After a moment she sighed. "Why'd you have to go and make it feel like sitting on the couch was a punishment?"

"You're the one that wanted to stay there," Don pointed out.

"So? I'm hungry, if I could get up I would."

"Nothing's binding you to the couch."

"Except an un-worded challenge that you started and I'm going to win," Alex said jabbing a thumb in her direction, then yelled "Mikey!"

"You say something?" Mikey asked, leaning out his doorway, a pair of headphones hanging by a cord in his hand.

"Could you turn it down a little?" Alex asked.

"You're just jealous of my singing skills," Mikey said.

"There's a difference between jealous and deaf," Alex said back.

"Fine," Mikey said in an obviously fake stuck-up-but-noticeably-hiding-hurt-feelings voice.

Alex was sure she couldn't stand much more of the singing, she was too tired to block the noise out. "Hey I'll tell ya what, you keep the singing in your head and I'll… make you pancakes."

"If that will let you feel better," Mikey said like he didn't care, though it was a little too noticeable that he actually wanted the food as he put the headphones back on.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Don asked.

Alex smiled. "Simple, Don could you make us pancakes?" she asked innocently, unable to keep a straight face.

Don crossed his arms.

"What? I can't leave the couch, remember?" Alex said palms up in innocent fact.

Rolling his eyes Don turned to the kitchen.

Alex looked up to the ceiling as she lay on her back. A throbbing pain was pulsing up her leg and her wings and tail were getting mad at her for keeping them cramped underneath her shirt. She oddly shifted to lie on her side trying to get the pressure of her body off of the aching parts. She closed her eyes, wishing she could do anything for her leg that was taking forever to heal but it didn't seem like anything was going to help but just sitting there and enduring the throbbing pain as her body fixed itself.

She opened her eyes to the sound of clinking, like metal on ceramics. Either she dozed off or Don had invented some scientific way to speed up cooking or something because when she sat up the guy handed her a- bowl?

"Cereal?" she asked, realizing the liquid milk just in time to keep from spilling it on herself.

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Don said in an almost warning voice. "Especially to Mikey, he'll hold you to them. It amazes even me sometimes on how long he can remember a promise."

"I'll keep that in mind, though I promise I'll stay on this couch until my leg's healed," Alex said defiantly before she stuck the spoon in her mouth.

Half an hour later the empty bowl lay on the ground with the last of the milk drying at the bottom. The spoon was still held in a limp hand hanging off the edge of the couch as the owner breathed almost rhythmically, drool slowly dripping onto her shirt.

Don picked the bowl up; he knew those dissolving sleeping pills would kick in fast. He had to take some pity on the kid; he had heard her at four in the morning practically whimpering after he woke up from almost falling out of his desk chair and got up to go sleep in his bed.

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"Check," Alex said with a wide smile, crossing her arms in triumph the next day. It had been yet another sleepless pain filled night.

Don moved his rook with his own smile. "Check and mate."

The smile on Alex faded as she looked down at the chess board sitting before her on the couch, her bad leg hanging off the couch, foot gently resting on the floor. "Is not," she said as she tried to find a way to move her king to safety. There were none. "Wait- damn it!"

"Rematch?" Don asked.

"I wanna play April again," Alex grumbled arms now crossed in defeat. That was only the twenty-seventh time she had lost to the turtle.

"Oh come on, the twenty-eighth time's the charm," Donny encouraged as he set the board back up.

"How 'bout checkers instead?" Alex suggested. "It's less complicated." The girl leaned back against the armrest behind her as Don went to go get the other game. On the floor, only a foot from the largest TV screen sat Mikey so into his game he might as well be hypnotized. Alex watched the screen light up with bright flashes of color and streaks of speed moving across the screen that could give those with a weak heart a seizure while she waited.

April came up behind the couch, she leaned against the back. "Don't feel bad, I've yet to meet someone that could beat Don in a chess game, I can't even beat him."

"I was trained to take orders instead of giving them anyway…" Alex said mindlessly as she watched the TV in a type of trance, just like Mikey.

April looked at her in confused surprise. Raph and Leo, who had been dueling back behind them, stopped their fighting after hearing what the mere fourteen-year-old had said.

"What?" April asked.

Alex blinked, why had she said that? Idiot! "What?" she asked back.

"What did you just say?" April asked.

Alex took on the face of confusion. "I said 'what', what did you say?"

"Just a second ago, you said something, what was it?" April said.

"I wanted to play checkers?" Alex tried innocently, like she had no idea what the lady was talking about.

"No right after that- oh never mind," April gave up.

Raph looked at Leo. He didn't even need to say anything before his brother replied.

"I don't care Raph," Leo said quietly. "I don't wanna know unless she's willing to tell us."

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The next day Alex still couldn't believe she had let that sentence just slip out. How could she have been so careless with her words?! It wasn't like her at all. Being surrounded by living things that treated her as an equal was making her let her guard down, it wasn't good at all.

She lay on the couch thinking it over, figuring how to be more careful. It had been three days since she broke her leg, this was the fourth. For that length of time it had been sleepless nights and passing out in the day from drowsy pain killers. Maybe that was why her leg was taking so long to get better. Rest was supposable one of the best ways to heal, and it seemed she was getting the least amount possible.

She closed her eyes in exhaustion. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go on like this. At least she was finding some relief in letting her wings and tail out from underneath her clothes in the middle of the night, though she couldn't use them and leave the couch.

She had stayed true to her promise of not leaving the couch until her leg was better and she was sticking to it, putting it in her mind that going to the bathroom didn't count. But after this long she was starting to think that maybe her leg was better. It had stopped hurting about an hour ago. Injuries tended to do that to her. Take forever to go through healing, and then seem to just disappear so fast she didn't even notice.

When she opened her eyes she looked around. The place was really quiet. The guys must have left, she wasn't really sure what time it was, but they could be out in the sewers anyway so it didn't matter sometimes what time it was.

Suddenly she became aware of the dryness in the back of her throat. Had she been this thirsty a minute ago? She shrugged. It didn't matter, really. She was thirsty now, the guys were gone as far as she knew, and the kitchen was way over there.

Carefully, like anyone could be looking, she put her good foot on the floor, pushed off of the couch and stood up. Lightly touching the foot of her bad leg to the floor she tried to take a step, stumbled in pain, and fell on her face; nope, leg's still healing. Using the couch for support she pulled herself back to her feet and bent down, hands touching floor. With a big breath she kicked her legs up and actually made a successful handstand. Now trying to keep her balance she walked on her hands towards the kitchen.

Going to the refrigerator she had a bit of a hard time getting the door open without falling over. But she finally got it after placing all her concentration on balancing on one hand while she yanked the door open, and then quickly shifted her weight to the hand on the door so she didn't tip over. Getting her balance back she inched forward, reached forward as well as she could and pulled out a cold can of soda.

This is going to be interesting… she thought as she put the soda on the floor as she closed the fridge door without hitting herself with it. Now was the problem of getting back to the couch. At first she tried holding the can under her chin, but it was cold and wouldn't stay. She couldn't wedge it into any pocket without falling over, it was too cold to hold between her legs, and she just knew that rolling it across the floor wasn't going to work with the possibility of it taking a sudden turn. So she stood the can up, grabbed it by pressing her palm against the top of the can and did an awkward jump-limp. It only got her a few inches, but she still went forward. She continued at this concentrating hard on what she was doing that she didn't notice the quiet footsteps coming towards her.

Suddenly there was pressure around her good ankle and the ground fell away from her hands. Was gravity broken?

"Hey where's the floor going?" she asked, swinging her arms like she could reach back down and grab it.

"So much for stay'n on the couch," the rough voice said.

Alex looked down at the ceiling and found an upside down Raphael holding her in the air by the ankle.

"Heh, hey Raph," she said with a guilty hint in her voice.

The muscular guy more-or-less carried her like that back to the couch and set her down in front of the piece of furniture. Still holding the soda Alex righted herself and sat down on the cushions.

"I thought you guys left," Alex said feebly as Raph stood there. He held the look of someone wanting something and wasn't going to leave her alone until he got it.

"Okay kid, what's the point of hiding it?" Raph asked.

"H-hiding what?" Alex asked innocently, though she had a feeling the whole innocent act wasn't going to work on this turtle. The girl didn't like this, being cornered on a couch because of a broken leg.

"You know exactly what," Raph said crossing his arms. "Me and Casey saw it that night and you can't deny it, and don't start wit' me by say'n you have no idea what I'm talking about. Actually I think you know more about what I'm talk'n about than I do."

Alex bit her lip, hugging her pillow to her chest. He was right. He might want the answers to one thing, but if she told him he'd probably get more than expected. She was at a loss for words, looking for just the right way to get around this one without lying or giving anything away.

Raph spoke when the silence lasted more than a few moments. "Look kid, you're living in the sewers with me and my three bros, a bunch of big green turtle-guys. What could you possibly be hiding that we couldn't handle? I saw yer…" he hesitated looking for the right words "wings an' so did Casey; you didn't see any reactions from us."

"Doesn't matter," Alex whispered under her breath, not even looking at Raph. "I'm not pulling you guys into this."

"Into what?"

"You don't need to know."

"If it has ta do with me and my family I need ta know, kid."

"And I respect that," she did too; she could only imagine what it was like to be in an actual family. "But it doesn't have to do with you. It has to do with no one but me; it's only my business, no one else's."

"But you're living wit' us, which makes it our business," Raph argued. He wasn't giving up, he was fed up with Alex always finding away to avoid giving straight answers.

"It doesn't work like that," Alex quietly told the pillow in her arms.

"What doesn't?"

"My business," Alex said simply, dropping her head into the pillow, wishing he'd go away.

Raph opened his mouth to try and pry harder when Leo walking into the lair. He walked away before he got lectured about respecting secrets and all that crap. But he wasn't done; he'd find out her story some way or another.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief into the pillow; that was close.


Sorry, this one's kind of slow, and there isn't much going on, though I promise that the next chapter is big for the plot, and questions will be answered finally!

And I can say that I've broken a leg myself, and both my arms at some points in my life, so I know what its like, and I hated those nights were I was stuck in bed forced to just live through it when the broken bone decided to make the night a living hell of pain. It sucked.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter until I can get everything down and update again.